Walker plans to exit post ‘gracefully’

By Jimmy LaRoue

Published: May 28, 2008

As Doug Walker fielded a flood of conciliatory e-mails Wednesday in the aftermath of his resignation as Waynesboro city manager, the specter of council infighting reemerged.
“Many have called. The expressions of support have been a little overwhelming both from within the community and from my colleagues around the state,” said Walker, who announced Tuesday that he will quit his $125,000-a-year job June 30 under pressure from the conservative council bloc led by Frank Lucente.
Walker, like Lucente and council ally Tim Williams, declined to comment on the factors that precipitated the move.
“I really want to try and exit gracefully, and I’m really not trying to get into any issues with council members at this point,” Walker said.
Lucente said he and Williams approached Walker about a week after the May 6 election and asked the administrator to resign after five years on the job. Overwhelming victories by Lucente and political ally Bruce Allen gave the conservative contingent majority control starting July 1.
Vice Mayor Nancy Dowdy complained that she, Mayor Tom Reynolds and Councilwoman Lorie Smith did not learn of Walker’s resignation until May 22, five days before the news sent shockwaves through the city. Dowdy was also upset that she learned of the decision from Walker rather than Lucente and Williams.
“It’s very difficult, because both have said they want to work with us, and yet here they’re doing the backroom politics thing and didn’t include us in the decision,” Dowdy said.
Lucente declined to comment on the behind-the-curtain communications. “We did it in a respectful manner,” he said, “and we expected it to be handled in a respectful manner.”
Williams declined to comment.
Walker started work in Waynesboro in 2003 after 10 years in Spotsylvania County as an assistant and deputy county administrator, and then interim county administrator for eight months after Kim Payne quit the position to take a job as city manager in Lynchburg. Walker was one of six finalists to replace Payne, but supervisors bypassed him in favor of a candidate who later resigned after a year on the job.
Still, Walker had his allies. When he left Spotsylvania in late 2002, supervisors passed a resolution praising Walker’s contributions to the county.
Lucente said the next steps for the council are naming an interim city manager and launching the search for a permanent replacement.
The shakeup, Dowdy said, is “going to take us back probably 10 years.”
It was time to go in a different direction, Lucente said.
“Sometimes you have to make hard decisions,” Lucente said, “and I try to make the decisions that are the best for the community. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like they are at the moment, but hopefully it’ll work out.”
Before his hiring in late 2002, Walker said, he made a list of finalists winnowed from a field of contenders screened by a city-commissioned search firm. He visited the city before the council finally settled on him.
The process, Walker said, is about finding a good match for the administrator and city alike.
“The community has to feel that the candidate is the right fit,” Walker said, “and the candidate has to feel that the community is the right fit.”
Alicia Rimel contributed to this story.